MCALLEN, Texas — Trump administration officials say they have no clear plan yet on how to reunite the thousands of children separated from their families at the border since the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy in which anyone caught entering the U.S. illegally is criminally prosecuted.
“This policy is relatively new,” said Steven Wagner, an acting assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services “We’re still working through the experience of reunifying kids with their parents after adjudication.”
Federal officials say there are some methods parents can use to try to find their children: hotlines to call and an email address for those seeking information. But advocates say it’s not that simple.
In a courtroom near the Rio Grande, lawyer Efren Olivares and his team with the Texas Civil Rights Project frantically scribble down children’s names, birthdates and other details from handcuffed men and women waiting for court to begin. There are sometimes 80 of them in the same hearing.
The Texas Civil Rights Project works to document the separations in the hopes of helping them reunite with the children.
CAIRO — The 15 officers who arrived at the prison in southern Yemen hid their faces behind head dresses, but their accents were clearly foreign — from the United Arab Emirates. They lined up the detainees and ordered them to undress and lie down. The officers then searched the anal cavity of each prisoner, claiming that they were looking for contraband cell phones.
The men screamed and wept. Those who resisted were threatened by barking dogs and beaten until they bled.
Hundreds of detainees suffered similar sexual abuse during the event on March 10 at Beir Ahmed prison in the southern city of Aden, according to seven witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press. Descriptions of the mass abuse offer a window into a world of rampant sexual torture and impunity in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen.
The UAE is a key U.S. ally whose secret prisons and widespread torture were exposed by an AP investigation last June. The AP has since identified at least five prisons where security forces use sexual torture to brutalize and break inmates.
The AP first asked the Pentagon about grave rights abuses committed by the UAE one year ago. But despite well-documented reports of torture reported by the AP, human rights groups and even the United Nations, Marine Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the U.S. has seen no evidence of detainee abuse in Yemen.
BEIJING — South Korea’s president urged North Korea on Wednesday to present a plan with concrete steps toward denuclearization, raising the pressure on its leader, Kim Jong Un, during his visit to Beijing to discuss the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Kim is in Beijing on his third visit to China this year, underscoring the major improvement in relations between the communist neighbors.
Kim’s motorcade was seen leaving the North Korean Embassy on Wednesday afternoon as police closed off major roads and intersections in central Beijing. Gawking pedestrians watched the passing motorcade that included Kim’s limousine — a black Mercedes with gold emblems on the rear doors — as well as several minibuses and 15 motorcycle police clad in white suits.
The motorcade traveled to Beijing’s airport, where the limousine was spotted entering the charter flight terminal.
In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged North Korea to present “far more concrete” plans on how it will scrap its nuclear program, and the United States to take unspecified corresponding measures swiftly.
TIGARAS, Indonesia — Distraught relatives slammed Indonesia’s government for not enforcing basic safety measures on passenger boats and pleaded Wednesday for a bigger search effort for more than 190 people missing since a ferry sank on a picturesque Sumatran lake early this week.
The wooden vessel, overcrowded with passengers as well as dozens of motorbikes, didn’t have a manifest and disaster officials have several times raised the number of people it was carrying as family members who rushed to Lake Toba in northern Sumatra provided information.
The boat was five times over its passenger capacity and equipped with only 45 life jackets, National Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi told a news conference.
The latest information is that 192 people are missing, he said.
Only 18 survivors have been found — in bad weather within hours of the sinking Monday evening, which according to Syaugi occurred in waters more than 984 feet deep but only 0.3 mile from an island that’s popular with visitors to the lake.
It’s possible many of the victims were still inside the sunken ferry, said North Sumatra province police chief Paulus Waterpau.
From Associated Press